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Sehwag announces retirement


vvvslaxman

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I am sad today really. I am as hurt as I was when Dravid and Tendulkar called it a day.

I had a feeling that he will never play again for India, but still it feels as if the childhood just got over all of a sudden. 

He really changed Indian test cricket the way he started batting. Removing oppositions best bowlers out of the attack in just 3-4 overs who otherwise would bowl a long 8-9 over spell in the first session, just shows the impact he had on the opposition's captain and the team. 

I will never remember 195 at MCG and those 300 runs and many double hundreds.

Special mention to that one moment when he refused to take a single when he was on 199 and had a chance to get 200. It was the last wicket and he wanted to make sure that team get more runs and hence to protect the other batsman and the team from getting bowled out,  he refused a single which would have gotten him to his 200. He ends up taking a single eventually to get 200. I remember that Muralitharan also mentioned that that was brilliant by Sehwag to think of the team over his big milestone of double hundred.

 

This is how he really played his game, always for the team. Sefles, unconventional dude who literally exposed opposition's bowling easily. 

 

Thank You Sehwag. I am going to miss you. 

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Good that we have the videos to prove it, otherwise two decades (or less)  hence a new generation of chubby cheeked floppy bellied nerds will turn up and declaim "Vutt men? Onlee 23 Test centuries (average below 50! ) and 15 ODI (35!),  Vutt great eh? Vutt vutt in my butt also?"

And you, going grey, going old, will be flummoxed, mortified with not much to say except to say Yes, but I was there to see it.  And point them to the f*cking videos.

 

  

Edited by NameGoesHere
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My favourite player after sachin there are so many times i shouted at sehwag for throwing his wicket away but that was his style of play aggressive and swash buckling loved all his innings against all teams who can forget multan 309 and that match in kochi against Pakistan semi final massacre of gul champions trophy century against England and that 293 against Lanka royal carnage of bowling.219 was a treat i am happy all double hundreds in odi are owned by Indians.

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Congratulations on a great career and sad he couldn't make a second comeback. His reflexes waned , I guess.. His interviews are classic, just like his batting. He speaks his mind. There are many, but this anecdote is very funny and typical Sehwag.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/425149.html

Sourav Ganguly once said this about you: "The best way to know how Virender Sehwag's mind works is to sit next to him in the players' balcony when India are batting. Every few minutes he will clutch his head and yell, "Chauka gaya" or "Chhakka gaya". That's his way of expressing disappointment at somebody's failure to take advantage of a ball that he thought deserved to be hit for four or six. That's how he thinks, in fours and sixes."
He was a good reader of the mind, and that's why he was such a great captain. He knew what the player was thinking and he would back him and give him the confidence by saying, "You can play the way you want to play, nobody will touch you, nobody will drop you."

It is absolutely true. Even now, if you ask anyone in the dressing room, I still say the same things. But that is for me, not for the player in the middle because if I was there I could easily hit the ball for a four or six, but I'm not blaming anyone else.

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 Sums up Sehwag for me... watched a lot of Gilly, The King Viv and the aggressive likes but Sehwag is one of a kind. 

How staggering is it that someone starts a tour particularly coming from sub continent to NZ and without a look in smashes 3 sixes to kick off a tour. I know of no one that has come close to keeping as uncomplicated as Sehwag. Mind you all of those shots are just clean as a whistle and proper. No slogging. Amazing player really... 

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My favorite anecdote of Sehwag. Nothing else tells more about his mindset and how he approached the game.

 

"Jeremy Snape told me a great story about him while we were working together in the Indian Premier League. Sehwag and Snape were batting for Leicestershire against Middlesex when Abdul Razzaq started reverse-swinging the ball in the way that the Pakistan bowlers do. Sehwag came up to Snape and said: 'We must lose this ball. I have a plan.' Next over, he whacked that ball clean out of the ground, forcing the umpires to pick another from the box that would obviously not reverse straight away. To which Sehwag said: 'We are all right for one hour.' Smart, I say."
Shane Warne, in his list of his top 100 cricketers

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Interview with Viru's coach from Cricbuzz. http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/75305/ac-on-the-third-floor-was-former-india-cricket-team-batsman-virender-sehwags-target

Quote "For a batsman who was blessed with exemplary hand-eye coordination and an inherently attacking mindset, my job was to ensure that he wasn't forced to curb any of his natural instincts. So when he'd hit a four, I would goad him - 'why couldn't you hit it for a six?' and he would be up for it. People talk about converting ones into twos, for him it was about converting fours into sixes. He was also a showman, if you can call it that. Our practice ground wasn't very big and as spectators queued up to watch the games, he'd set himself targets. To hit the ball to the first floor of the adjacent building. When done, move to the 2nd floor. There was an air-conditioner in the 3rd floor of that building. That was his favourite target. We'd lose roughly around 5 balls during these drills." :cantstop:

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Interview with Viru's coach from Cricbuzz. http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/75305/ac-on-the-third-floor-was-former-india-cricket-team-batsman-virender-sehwags-target

Quote "For a batsman who was blessed with exemplary hand-eye coordination and an inherently attacking mindset, my job was to ensure that he wasn't forced to curb any of his natural instincts. So when he'd hit a four, I would goad him - 'why couldn't you hit it for a six?' and he would be up for it. People talk about converting ones into twos, for him it was about converting fours into sixes. He was also a showman, if you can call it that. Our practice ground wasn't very big and as spectators queued up to watch the games, he'd set himself targets. To hit the ball to the first floor of the adjacent building. When done, move to the 2nd floor. There was an air-conditioner in the 3rd floor of that building. That was his favourite target. We'd lose roughly around 5 balls during these drills." :cantstop:

Exhilirating stuff. One reason why he was able to successfully toy with field set against Murali and Mendis. He would give lot of room and play the ball through impossible gaps on the off side.

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